The present invention relates to means for extracting moisture from a traveling web of textile material, and particularly to such a means and method by which high-moisture content fluid is displaced from a traveling web with low-moisture content fluid.
In the manufacture of textile material in web form various processing steps involve the application of substances in liquid form, such as dye liquor and other chemicals, which inherently result in the traveling web containing liquid that must ultimately be removed during further processing. Conventionally, moisture containing textile webs are passed through dryer ovens after first being subjected to a mechanical moisture extraction to reduce the moisture content suitable for drying to a desired level in the oven. The more moisture that can be extracted prior to drying in the oven, the less time and energy is required in oven drying.
Conventionally, vacuum slots, squeeze rolls or air blowers or combinations thereof are used to extract excess moisture in advance of oven dryers. Vacuum slots draw air through the traveling web and thereby withdraw with the air excess moisture from the traveling web. Such vacuum slot arrangements require a substantial amount of air flow with a corresponding high energy requirement to create the vacuum for the flow, and the air flow further results in substantial undesirable noise. Squeeze rolls, on the other hand, compress the traveling web and thereby squeeze moisture therefrom. This can result in undesirable pressure being applied to the textile web and/or an uneven removal of moisture resulting in an uneven moisture level that can affect the uniformity of subsequent processing, such as subsequent dyeing. Also, squeeze rolls often are not capable of effectively removing sufficient moisture for subsequent efficient drying. Air blower arrangements also do not provide adequate control and uniformity of moisture removal and require substantial energy usage.
Therefore, there has been a need for a means and method for extracting moisture from a traveling web of textile material with uniformity and reliability of results in a controlled manner with low energy consumption.